


i like me better when i'm with you

by lovepaints



Category: NU'EST, Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Genderbent!Jonghyun, Single Parent!Minhyun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 01:42:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13823808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovepaints/pseuds/lovepaints
Summary: minhyun walked into the school hoping to talk some sense into seonho for his behavior, he didn’t know he’d be leaving with a big fat crush on his teacher as well





	i like me better when i'm with you

**Author's Note:**

> *throws a dart* single dad *rolls a die* genderbent *flips a coin* 2hyun. enjoy!

minhyun's eyebrows furrow when he sees the caller id of saebyeok elementary light up on his screen. minhyun quickly saves the report he was working on and accepts the call.

 

“hello hwang minhyun speaking”

 

“hello, mr. hwang minhyun, this is dr. kwak aron, the principal of saebyeok elementary, are you the parent or guardian of yoo seonho?”

 

minhyun groans, already feeling a headache form in the back of his head. what could the kid have gotten into this time? “yes i am his official guardian. is something wrong? did something happen with seonho?” as much as minhyun wants to feel irritation towards the boy, he can’t help the worry that laces his voice.

 

“well, mr. hwang, seonho was carded yet again for causing disruption in the classroom. because this is his fifth offense, a parent-teacher conference must be arranged.”

 

minhyun definitely feels the headache now, and it’s only 1:30. “ah i apologize for any disturbances he may have caused to the other students and for his teacher. i know for a fact i taught him better than this.”

 

dr. kwak lets out a chuckle. “well that is an apology that should be directed to mrs. kim jonghyun, not me. she’s his homeroom teacher. mrs. kim out on personal matters today but she’ll be more happy to meet with you whenever you’re available to discuss seonho’s behavior.” they exchange some more pleasantries before arranging a date for the conference, minhyun making sure to pen the date into his planner.

 

he closes out his work and quickly tidies his office space before heading out to pick up seonho from school, making sure to flick his coworker dongho’s head before leaving.

 

thankfully for minhyun, the drive to the school was traffic-free, earning himself an actual parking spot in the lot rather than pulling into the drop-off roundabout. there’s still ten minutes before the school let out so he decides to pull out his planner again and start making a grocery list.

 

minhyun has always been a particulate person, wanting everything to fall exactly as planned and nothing far from it. he was perfectly content with maintaining the same lifestyle for the rest of his life until seonho dropped into his lap (literally) with his responsibilities and chaos.

 

seonho’s parents had been close friends with his family ever since they moved in next door when minhyun was in high school. with both of seonho’s parents constantly at work, minhyun’s parents soon became seonho’s second set, with minhyun nearly becoming the boy’s own brother. in the blink of an eye, seonho was orphaned at the young age of three when his parents perished in a fatal car accident. to minhyun and his parents’ surprise, the couple had named minhyun as the sole godparent of the boy instead of them. despite minhyun barely graduating college at the time, he decided to take in the boy and raise him himself (with the more than occasional help from his parents or sister).

 

currently, he’s reconsidering his decision, the bright red pen of the parent-teacher conference glaring at him from his planner. he’s dreading the meeting already, recounting how badly the conference from last year went with mrs. park. minhyun doesn’t know how she became a teacher with how jaded she seemed to be of life, seonho constantly having to call minhyun from the teacher’s phone for meaningless offenses (“so you’re telling me he accidentally dropped pencil shavings and that warranted three pulled cards?” minhyun had never felt such passionate hate for laminated construction paper until that moment.).

 

when his watch beeps at 3:15, he puts up his completed list and loosens his tie. he steps out of the car and squints towards the entrance doors of the school, waiting for the gush of energetic kids to overwhelm the school front. as if on cue, large streams of kids burst through the doors, harried teachers among the confusion, directing kids to their buses and keeping track of the dismissal schedule. he waits until he sees a familiar mop of messy hair running towards his car, the owner of said mop smiling wide with his backpack bouncing behind him. minhyun’s off mood immediately dissipates as he opens his arms wide for the boy to run into, nearly knocking him over by the force.

 

“hyung!” seonho giggles with glee, body thrumming with barely contained excitement.

 

“whoa there kiddo, easy on the strength,” minhyun chuckles, ruffling seonho’s hair. _he’s due for a haircut soon_ , minhyun mentally notes. “how was school?”

 

minhyun listens to the boy begin his minute-by-minute recount of everything he’s done that morning while he guiding him to the car, careful to avoid any incoming cars. he makes sure the boy had fastened his seatbelt before pulling out of the school’s lot and heading towards his condo.

 

seonho was in the middle of describing how cool he thought his friend guanlin’s new shoes were when minhyun decides to interrupt his pattering with the issue from earlier. “i got a call from the principal’s office today. dr. kwak tells me a certain yoo seonho was being a disturbance in class. for the fifth time-” he almost feels bad when he sees seonho visibly deflate through the rearview mirror. the boy is mighty good at getting away from reprimanding and minhyun has more than once fallen for the boy’s wide tearful eyes and pouting lips, but not this time. “-care to explain?”

 

minhyun has his eyes on the road but he can easily hear the pout in seonho’s voice. “we were about to learn about metamorbics in class-”

 

“metamorphosis?”

 

“-yeah and i just wanted to tell people about that movie we watched together about the butterflies. mrs. kim asked me to raise my hand if i wanted to talk and i tried hyung! but it’s hard when i have something to say but she picks someone else to talk.”

 

minhyun feels his heart clench a bit. of course he remembers the documentary they watched two weeks before. minhyun knows the boy doesn’t mean any harm to himself or others; he just gets easily excited over anything that is everything. minhyun has managed to calm it down over the years but there’s still some hyperactivity that minhyun thinks will settle with time.

 

“oh seonho-ya,” he reaches behind him to ruffle the boy’s hair again, earning a whine and a smack to his fingers. “it’s okay if you have something to say whenever mrs. kim asks a question, but you need to understand that there are other kids in the classroom with you as well. mrs. kim most likely wants to give the other kids a shot at answering questions too, does that make sense?” seonho lets out a disgruntled sound of agreement and minhyun cracks a small smile. what on earth is he going to do with this kid.

 

he knows he shouldn’t do it to be a Responsible Parent™, but his resolve crumbles and he passes the stoplight he was supposed to turn at to go home.

 

seonho immediately realizes this and kicks minhyun’s seat in alarm. “hyung you missed the turn! we have to turn around.”

 

“did i really? oops i guess we might as well go to the new ice cream shop that opened near the mall.” he chuckles when he hears the boy gasp.

 

“hyung are you serious? oh my god that’s the place hyungseob-hyung was talking about that had a bajillion flavors and toppings. hyungwhatifican’tpickagoodflavor-”

 

minhyun thinks it’s moments like these that makes him feel more than happy that he’s a parent. he admits that he faces a lot of doubt raising the boy by himself. most of the time he wonders if he’s even doing a decent job but seeing seonho skip happily out of the ice cream shop with his chocolate fudge swirl ice cream topped with enough candy that would make his dentist scream in horror, all of his worries leave at once.

 

(“hyung i can believe you chose vanilla out of all of the flavors, you’re so boring!”)

 

\---------

 

it’s the day of the meeting and minhyun is feeling more nervous than anything. he’s never met mrs. kim before, his only thoughts of her based solely from seonho’s descriptions which really leave him with nothing. as long as she’s nothing like mrs. park, minhyun thinks everything will be okay.

 

he’s finished making breakfast and frowns when he notices the lack of seonho at the kitchen table. he’s about to go fetch him when the named boy comes barreling into the room, uniform and tie askew.

 

minhyun clucks in dissatisfaction while reaching out to fix the boy’s tie. “seonho, what did i say about running in the apartment? we have to be careful about waking up the people beneath us. not everyone has to be awake as early as us.” minhyun knows his scolding is futile; the boy wasn’t listening to him at all, already inhaling his food. “do you remember what we have after school today?”

 

seonho’s entire body freezes with his chopsticks mid-air. if the boy didn’t look so horrified, minhyun would have laughed at his comical expression. he immediately drops his chopsticks and falls to his knees, “hyung please don’t make me go. you know i didn’t do anything wrong, cancel the meeting, i’ve learned my lesson this time!”

 

this time minhyun actually chuckles at and squats down to reach seonho’s eye-level. he gives what he hopes is a smile of reassurance and not of amusement. “i only think the best of you, seonho, but if the school thinks we need to have this meeting, then we should. don’t you want to stop having these conferences every year?” minhyun sees seonho’s lip wobble a little and briefly panics that he’s said the wrong thing until seonho nods his head and looks back at minhyun with a look of determination.

 

“okay hyung, this will be the last time you have to come to school because of me!” he all but yells before toppling minhyun over in a bone crushing hug and minhyun can’t find it in himself to scold the kid for wrinkling both of their clothes.

 

soon he manages to wrangle the energetic kid to school with a pat on the head and a (sort of) strict “don’t get your uniform dirty at recess!”

 

minhyun’s focus is lost at work, his mind obsessed with the meeting. he doesn’t even see dongho’s paper ball fly towards his head until it hits it’s target. he sputters in surprise before throwing the man a dirty look.

 

all he gets back is a too cheeky grin and a headache that’s coming back too soon. “someone’s a little too distracted this morning. i sent that draft for you to revise over an hour ago and yet you’re still on the same page.”

 

minhyun huffs in contempt, not wanting to reveal to dongho that he was very much distracted. “well maybe your proposal is so shitty that i can’t make it past the third page.”

 

dongho just _laughs_. the asshole. “okay, okay. what’s got the stick up your ass farther than usual? did you come to the sudden realisation of your lack of a love life?” minhyun eyes his stapler with sudden interest and internally debates the pros and cons of launching it towards dongho’s face. he decides that he’d rather keep his job than be sent to HR for causing bodily harm to his coworker.

 

he rubs a hand across his face in frustration. “seonho got in trouble at school again -” dongho snorts. “-and I have to meet his teacher this afternoon and i’m nervous she’s going to chew my head off for having a kid who can’t control his volume.” minhyun sighs, he really does like his head where it is.

 

“with your face, i doubt anyone would be able chew your head off with the amount of drool pouring out of their mouth.”

 

“that doesn’t make me feel the slightest bit better. actually now i’m mad at you for putting that mental image in my mind, dongho.”

 

“that’s great, now you’re not as nervous anymore! honestly i don’t think you appreciate my help as much as you should.”

 

“how does kyulkyung even deal with you? be glad that seonho and guanlin are friends or else i would’ve ended this friendship years ago,” minhyun threatens with narrowed eyes before turning back to the document on his computer screen, pointedly ignoring dongho’s guffaws behind him.

 

his shifts seems to end too early and minhyun finds himself packing up his things slower than usual, briefly deciding to reorganize his already immaculate desk space until dongho starts teasing him again for stalling. the world seems to be adamant on getting minhyun at this meeting as the usual traffic seems to dissipate as minhyun makes his way to the school. minhyun feels his nerves slowly get worse when he walks into the building, the cheerful ambiance of the school doing little for his jitters. he debates on whether or not to take his journal into the meeting but ultimately grabs it anyways in case he has to take notes.

 

when he enters the office, he notices his effect immediately. he greets the office personnel with a smile and swears the secretary is going to faint. while he may have been oblivious in college when others would show their affections towards him, he’s grown to learn that his looks have come in more handy than not, especially when it came to charming teachers and staff whenever seonho got into trouble.

 

it doesn’t take long for seonho to trudge into the office when dismissal comes around, his mood a stark 180° from this morning. minhyun thanks the women for their help and quickly ushers seonho out of the office before any of them can ask him for his number (again).

 

it doesn’t take much for minhyun to prod seonho into his usual chattering self, the boy detailing his day to a tee while going on momentary tangents about different aspects of the school like the cafeteria, the library, and his favorite, the music room (minhyun’s been meaning to put the kid in piano lessons for a while but has yet to find a teacher that can handle seonho’s energy).

 

he eventually leads minhyun into a room that he assumes is his class by the way seonho drags minhyun towards the back wall to show him some of his work that had made it to the bulletin board. he looks around for mrs. kim but finds the room empty except for them. when he asks seonho about it, the kid just huffs at him for interrupting but says that she went to the breakroom for a moment. minhyun absentmindedly places his planner on the bookshelf when seonho tells him to feel some of the relief art they did earlier in art class.

 

seonho’s in the middle of showing minhyun the poster his classmates made together when he hears a soft ‘hello’ behind them. minhyun turns around and swears he feels his jaw fall to the ground.

 

mrs. kim is nothing like minhyun had thought her to be. he was prepared to meet another crabby old woman or an overbearing woman but mrs. kim fits neither image. mrs. kim is surprising very young, minhyun wouldn’t be surprised if she were around his age but her eyes held a childish glint to them that seemed to mirror those of her students. her dark hair was tied up in a high ponytail, fringe falling softly to frame her face. minhyun’s greeting ringing deaf to his own ears as he takes in more details of the woman from how her slightly oversized sweater seemed to make her small frame even smaller to the slight upturn of her lips. the only thought that his mind supplies is that she is so _cute_. he thinks he’s able to momentarily bring himself back to reality and maintain composure...

 

but then her face splits into a smile and minhyun knew right then that he was a goner and he couldn’t do anything about it.

 

he comes back to the situation at hand when he hears seonho cough obnoxiously and realizes the outstretched hand mrs. kim offered in his direction. minhyun hastily grabs her hand to shake it and chooses to ignore seonho’s snickering in favor of relishing how soft mrs. kim’s hand was.

 

she lets out a small giggle and directs them towards the chairs positioned in front of her desk, the chaos of papers and books barely fazing his usual disdain for clutter.

 

“it’s such a pleasure to meet the man behind one of my brightest students,” mrs. kim says with a small smile.

 

even though it wasn’t a compliment for him, minhyun still feels his ears warming up and ignores the urge to touch them. “as am i for finally meeting the amazing teacher who was able to handle such a ball of energy for so long,” seonho sends him a look of scorn that doesn’t go unnoticed by mrs. kim.

 

her eyes crinkle in silent mirth and minhyun decides that he could lose himself into their dark orbs for the rest of his life. “ah as for the reason of this meeting. truthfully i don’t believe that seonho is a problematic kid at all-” minhyun lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, “-he has a lot of meaningful commentary to add to class lessons. if administration did not require it, i wouldn’t have even scheduled this conference” she pauses to think for a moment, “the only issue we have is is that seonho has the tendency to blurt out answers in the middle of class. i do not for a second wish to undermine his intelligence but it does take away from the learning experience of the other students.”

 

minhyun glances at the boy in the center of the conversation, internally chuckling at how seonho has decided that his shoelaces were more interesting than the adults in the room. he has never seen the boy bashful in a meeting before. mrs. kim must be a teacher that seonho admired more than he let on. he turns back to mrs. kim and sends her a small smile.

 

she continued “while i do think that his curiosity is definitely something that we can continue to be fostered here and at home, i think we can work on curbing his impulse to speak when he feels like it in favor for when it’s appropriate in class.” she smiles at minhyun again and minhyun internally swoons, his mind involuntarily supplies a comparison on how it’s brightness rivals the sun but he instantly tramps down on its cheesiness.

 

the rest of the meeting goes smoothly when minhyun’s composure finally kicks in and he’s able to maintain conversation with mrs. kim, the subject never straying far from the class’s past projects and future units. minhyun thinks he’s overdone the enthusiasm when she mentions a unit on poetry for english period, but mrs. kim seems unfazed and even promises to email him for opinions on examples for the class.

 

minhyun thinks he could talk for hours but sees seonho let out a huge yawn in his peripheral that makes both of the adults laugh in fondness.

 

“well it seems like somebody’s batteries are low. thank you so much for coming to the meeting mr. hwang, it was quite lovely to speak to you.” mrs. kim says as she stands up and reaches over to shake minhyun’s hand. he also makes to stand up and gently nudges the dozing kid beside him to as well. seonho jumps a little at the contact but when he realizes it’s time to go, he immediately perks up and makes his way to the door.

 

mrs. kim offers to walk them to the entrance and bids them goodbye, wishing them both a good fall break.

 

minhyun feels strangely light after the meeting but the feeling shatters when seonho turns on him in the parking lot and screams “i can’t believe you have a crush on my teacher!”

 

“i do not, seonho,” minhyun says calmly but internally panics, looking around to make sure mrs. kim was not in earshot. he knows from experience that divulging his true feelings with seonho would not be the best choice. the boy would inevitably leak such information to the teacher in question faster than minhyun would be able to prevent the damage.

 

but minhyun would be a fool to think that seonho couldn’t see past his lie. “you _do_ hyung. i saw the hearts in your eyes. _minhyun you love her_ ,” seonho huffs, crossing his arms and effectively blocking minhyun from opening the door of the car.

 

minhyun puts his hands on his waist in annoyance. there really was no way of avoiding this topic. “seonho, first of all it’s minhyun _hyung._ second of all, i can’t be in love with mrs. kim, i just met her. you have to date someone for a while before you can truly love them.”

 

“then that means you sorta love her now! that’s still love! she was smiling a lot at you too!”

 

“seonho. _no_ -”

 

“i don’t care what you say, I believe it!”

 

minhyun already senses that attempting to convince the boy otherwise was a losing battle. he finally sighs in acquiescence and let’s the boy have it. “okay i may like your teacher a little bit but one, it’s not love and two, don’t you dare tell anyone or else i’m cutting your computer time back to one hour.”

 

seonho grins in victory and skips to the backseat in glee (minhyun thinks the boy has been hanging around dongho too much considering their shared eagerness to make his life eternal hell).

 

seonho thankfully doesn’t bring the topic up again over dinner later that day but minhyun knows the boy’s thinking about it by his unusual silence and the way he keeps smiling into his food. minhyun wants to press but he chooses to go against it because he can only handle so much embarrassment in one day.

 

it leaves minhyun with a lot of time to think about the situation himself. does he like mrs. kim beyond what is appropriate for teachers and parents? he knows he has more than just a little interest but he's not quite sure if it would be reciprocated. he ends up concluding that the woman was purely being polite. he doesn’t know exactly where the line is drawn for relationships between teachers and parents but he figures it’s a line better avoided than accidentally crossed.

 

he later tucks seonho into bed, placing a kiss on his forehead (that seonho doesn’t fail to smack the side of his head for because ‘he’s too old for good night kisses’).

 

minhyun is about to close the door to seonho’s bedroom but pauses when he hears a sleepy mumble from the boy.

 

“seonho what is it?”

 

“i said that i wouldn’t mind having mrs. kim as my mom”

 

minhyun smiles softly at the boy before quietly shutting his door. the smile stays on his face as he goes through his night routine until he goes to bed himself. _yeah, i wouldn’t mind either._

 

he feels a slight nagging in the back of his mind that he can’t seem to place but decides that it can wait until the next morning and lets the exhaustion from the day's events pull him to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> *finger guns* i've wanted to write this au for SO LONG and i decided as a birthday present to myself to finally write it :') the next update may take a while because of uni but hopefully i'll get it up soon!
> 
> feel free to ask me questions at my [twitter](https://twitter.com/_lovepaints) or in my [cc](https://curiouscat.me/lovepaints).


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